Princess Kandarapa

Kandarapa was a native Filipina princess of the Tondo polity in the island of Luzon during the 16th century Spanish conquest of the Philippines, and the wife of the Spanish conquistador Juan de Salcedo. She was described as a beautiful young woman who came from a tribal royal family. Kandarapa was the niece of Rajah Lakandula, the king of Tondo, and the daughter of Bunao Lakandula's sister, Princess Salanta, who became a widow at a young age. She was named after the native Filipino Kandarapa bird (known as the Philippine nightjar), a lark that frequently stayed amongst the rice padies, whose songs she imitated with her beautiful voice. Her uncle, the king, resisted conversion to Islam and remained loyal to the native Filipino (Hindu-Malay) religion of his forebears and although Tondo was an older kingdom, it ceded power to Manila which was established as a satellite state subservient to the Sultanate of Brunei after a Bruneian settlement of Luzon. Islam was brought to the islands by preachers that had travelled from the islands of Borneo and Indonesia. During this period, Islam had slowly began converting the native tribes of Luzon. Lakandula, desirous of forging an alliance with the much more powerful Rajah of Macabebe, Tariq Sulayman, betrothed her niece to the Rajah of Macabebe, an arrangement Princess Kandarapa disapproved because he already had multiple wives from previous marriages as a result of his Islamic tradition.
Had the Spaniards arrived a century later, the Philippines would have been an Islamic country.

Afterwards, the balance of power between the state of Manila and the kingdom of Tondo came to a change with the arrival of the Spaniards, that had sailed from Mexico, who were firmly against Muslim interests as Christian Spain had freshly finished the Reconquista in their homeland, expelling the Arab settlements of the Emirate of Granada upon their invasion of the Christian Spanish kingdom in the 8th century.

When Kandarapa was bathing in the Pasig River with a retinue of her servant-maidens was when she encountered the Mexican-born Spanish soldier Juan de Salcedo. While the rest of her entourage fled in fear of the man, she froze there staring at the erstwhile Spaniard, while the conquistador, in kind, stood there too, "appreciating' her feminine figure, after briefly beholding her, he politely excused himself to do an errand.

Personal life

Kandarapa was born in 1553 and she married the Spanish soldier and European visitor, Juan de Salcedo in 1572, at the age of 19. According to Philippine historical documents and a written account by Don Felipe Cepeda, Salcedo's aide, who returned to Acapulco, recount that after the Spanish Invasion of Luzon with Mexican and Visayan folks, and their foreign takeover of the Pasig River delta polity of Hindu Tondo, which was the previous preeminent state in Luzon before the Brunei Sultanate established their puppet-kingdom, Islamic Manila, to supplant Tondo, Juan de Salcedo, then about 22 years old, fell in love with the 18-year-old "Dayang-dayang" (a native Filipino word for "Princess") Kandarapa, so named after the lark of the rice fields, whose song she imitated by her beautiful singing voice, was said to be the niece of Rajah Lakandula, Tondo's Lakan ("Paramount ruler"). Juan fell in love, upon seeing the femininity of her figure while she and her handmaidens were bathing in the Pasig River. Their love was completely against their forebears' wishes since Lakandula wanted his niece, Dayang-dayang Kandarapa, to be married to the Rajah of Macabebe which Kandarapa didn't want as he was already married multiple times to other women due to his Islamic custom;"The romance of Juan de Salcedo and Lakandola's niece, Dayang-Dayang Candarapa"
published in the Kahimyang Project, Citing:
Romance and adventure in old Manila, by Walter Robb, from manuscripts of Percy A. Hill, Philippine Education Company, Manila, 1935 and Miguel López de Legazpi wanted his Mexican born grandson, Salcedo, to marry a pure white European Inherited Spanish woman. The Rajah of Macabebe who got word of the budding romance from Rajah Sulayman a fellow Muslim Rajah, of Manila, became enraged and he cried out:

The chieftain Rajah Tariq Sulayman then waged the Battle of Bangkusay against the Spaniards, to counter-act which, the Spanish general Miguel López de Legazpi dispatched Martin de Goiti and Juan de Salcedo to the battlefield where they slayed Sulayman through a cannon shot to the chest, thereby falling overboard to be eaten by the crocodiles he swore by. The Spanish were afterward overloaded with loot and prisoners. Among the detainees were Rajah Lakandula's son and nephew, whom López de Legazpi freed while concealing his knowledge of the rajahs of Tondo's betrayal. De Goiti sailed into Bulakan through the twisting channels of the Pampanga, bringing Lakandula and Sulayman with them to urge the inhabitants to submit. López de Legazpi imprisoned Lakandula after he returned to Tondo without authorization despite his eloquence in persuading the other datus (chieftains) to join the Spaniards. When de Goiti and Salcedo returned, of course, Salcedo petitioned for Lakandula's freedom, and he was released.

Afterwards Juan and Kandarapa secretly married, Juan and Kandarapa exchanged letters and rings, hoping that the future will resolve their problems and offer them happiness. Fray Alvarado quickly catechized and baptized Kandarapa, along with many other members of Lakandula's family to the Roman Catholic faith, and gave Kandarapa the Christian name Dolores. Her Spanish name was ''Dolores de Lacándola''. Kandarapa sent Salcedo a message within a cluster of white Lotus flowers (The Lotus flower is the most sacred flower in Tantric Mysticism since it is pure and beautiful despite growing from the mud of its surroundings. It is simultaneously a chief symbol of the Hindu God Vishnu and associated with Zen Buddhism as well). However, princess Kandarapa mistakenly thought that Salcedo had been unfaithful to her as a result of the disapproving of López de Legazpi sending his grandson on far flung expeditions to deter his love for Kandarapa because he wanted Juan to marry a pure Spanish inherited woman, and even lying that his grandson had married the daughter of the Rajah of Kaog, Santa Lucia. So, she died of a broken heart. Upon going back from his campaigns, Salcedo learned of her death and yet kept her token of fidelity with him until the end. It is said that when he died in Ilocos, he had in his breast pocket, the dried leaves of the Lotus flowers Kandarapa gave him. This romance, as recorded by Don Felipe Cepeda in Mexico, was picked up by the Catalonian Jesuit, Rev. Fr. Jose Ibañez, who published this romance in Spain.

See also

* History of the Philippines

References

{{Reflist

Filipino royalty
History of the Philippines (900–1565)